According to Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation, July 2009, “Safety is our No. 1 priority at the U.S. Department of Transportation. And a cornerstone of our safety policy is ensuring that transportation providers across all modes – on roads, rails, water, or in the air over land and underground – employ operators who are 100 percent drug- and alcohol-free.  We want – and we insist upon – safety conscious employees at all times and under all circumstances.”

The Ominibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991 requires drug and alcohol testing of safety-sensitive transportation employees in aviation, trucking, railroads, mass transit, pipelines and other transportation industries.  DOT publishes rules on who must conduct drug and alcohol tests, how to conduct those tests and what procedures to use when testing.  These regulations cover all transportation employers, safety-sensitive transportation employees and service agents – roughly 12 plus million people.  Encompassed in 49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 40, the Office of Drug & Alcohol Policy & Compliance (ODAPC) publishes, implements and provides authoritative interpretation of these rules (www.dot.gov/ost/dapc).

PAS Systems International, Inc. offers a variety of D.O.T. approved instruments for workplace testing. These instruments are listed on the National Highway Traffic Agency’s “Conforming Products List of Screening Devices to Measure Alcohol in Bodily Fluids.” Our instruments are designed to support your drug and alcohol screening policy and to serve as a deterrent to drug and alcohol use when properly promoted within the employers human relations programs.

Regardless if you are considering screening new job applicants, truck drivers, airplane pilots, heavy equipment operators or others; our easy to use instruments are widely used across the country.

When thinking of introducing or upgrading a policy of workplace drug and alcohol testing employers usually think first of the resulting advantage in increased workplace productivity. But there are other important reasons to test. Workplace safety, for one. Intoxicated and hung over workers are a workplace hazard, a danger to themselves, and to their coworkers.

Another important consideration that should be part of an informed decision to test for drugs is employer liability for the actions of drug-using employees. Most employers are aware that if an employee is injured in a workplace accident, and then test positive for intoxicants (alcohol and other drugs); workmen’s comp will not cover. But what if the intoxicated worker injures another worker? Legal analysts have stated, “If an intoxicated worker injures another worker, the employer may be required to pay the injured employee’s workers compensation benefits.” Also, if a worker known by the employer to be intoxicated is allowed to work, the court might find that the employee was acting with the employer’s permission, and so the employer may also be found liable to the injured employee. The same result could occur if the injured worker can demonstrate the employer “should have known” that the employee was intoxicated.

The law is technical and complicated, and the above is not intended to be legal advice. However, if these comments peak your interest you may want to learn more about employer liability regarding employee drug use by speaking to a lawyer familiar with employer-employee relations.

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